It is generally believed that the emergence of cancer in an individual is the result of a confluence of factors: an inherited genetic weakness, an environmental insult such as radiation or a chemical injury, and the failure of that individual's immune system to respond to the emerging cancer. While significant progress has been made in cancer research, many forms of cancer still remain incurable. For example, pancreatic cancers are among the most lethal of all cancers, because they grow rapidly, metastasize most often before the cancer is discovered, and are resistant to all known modes of therapy.
Monoclonal antibodies have been recognized as potentially important agents to use in diagnosing and treating cancer. Monoclonal antibodies react with a single foreign substance (antigen) as do all antibodies, but their most valued characteristics are that they can be selected and created to react with a simple desired antigenic epitope, they can be made in large quantities, and they are relatively innocuous when injected into the human host. The techniques for creating monoclonal antibodies were elaborated thirty years ago, although refinements in technology continue to date.
Early cancer researchers prepared modified monoclonal antibodies which recognized and reacted with cancer cells for cancer treatment. These monoclonal antibodies included a radioactive isotope or a poison designed to inhibit the growth of the cancer. The modified monoclonal antibodies were injected into a patient with cancer where they would traverse the body and react with the cancer cells regardless of their location. The monoclonal antibodies were designed as the specific delivery vehicle with which to take a killing function to the cancer.
FR2 128 267 A (T. Asada) dated Oct. 20, 1972, describes the use of mumps virus for the treatment of cancer.
R. Crusinberry, et al. Seminar in Surgical Oncology, Vol. 7, no. 4, Jul. 1991, pages 221-229, New York, N.Y., USA describes the use of a transfer factor, alone, or in combination with BCGor chemotherapy in cancer immunotherapy.
U. Prasad, et al. Biotherapy, vol 9, no. 1-3, 1996, pages 109-115 describes the use of transfer factors as an adjuvant therapy in combination with chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
L. Basutti, et al. Journal of Experimental Pathology, vol. 3, no. 4, 1987, pages 565-568 describes the use of transfer factors as an adjuvant therapy in combination with chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
EPO 010 738A (A/S Alfred Benzon) 14 May 1980 (1980 May 14) describes the use of transfer factor therapeutically by parental administration in human beings to obtain immunity directed against an antigen which is pathogenic in man, such as cancer cells or extracts thereof.
The initial enthusiasm for the use of monoclonal antibodies in treating cancer cooled when it became clear that an effective killer function was not easy to develop and that monoclonal antibodies needed further modifications to be effective at treating cancer.
There is thus a strong need to develop new cancer therapies. In particular, there is a need to improve monoclonal antibody cancer therapies as well as provide specific cancer receptor agonists other than monoclonal antibodies in cancer therapies.